The present disclosure relates to a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system (HVAC) of a power machine and associated routing of air into a cab of the power machine.
Power machines include various work vehicles such as skid steer loaders, tracked loaders, excavators, telehandlers, and utility vehicles. Various power machines include cabs that protect the operator of the power machine and define, or help to define with a frame of the power machine, an operator compartment in which an operator is positioned while operating the power machine. Enclosed cabs provide the option for providing the operator climate controlled working conditions with heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. However, due to limited space and general construction of operator cabs in power machines, generation and distribution of conditioned air can be challenging. For example, some power machines such as skid steer loaders are very compact, and it is desirable to keep the profile, that is the height, width, and length outside dimensions, the same, with or without an HVAC system for each model. Other power machines present similar challenges.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,223,807, issued to Asche et al. on May 1, 2001, discloses an HVAC system which aids overcoming some of the above-described challenges by choice of HVAC system position and configuration. However, limitations of space available for routing ducts can still present further challenges in some power machine configurations. For example, side panels or walls of the operator cab are frequently subject to internal geometry effecting constrains such as the requirement for routing wires, requirements to maximize interior space of the cab, etc. As a result, it can be difficult to provide sufficient room for ducts through which the HVAC system moves air to remote locations of the cab.